American Politics from 2019 on

[Svartalf]

Neoliberalism is dead!

hail postliberal corporate neofeudalism.

[Tero]

Kamala Harris for governor
A new Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics/The Hill survey of California voters finds a majority of Primary voters (57%) would support former Vice President Kamala Harris if she ran for Governor. Former Rep. Katie Porter follows, at 9%, 4% support former Speaker of the California State Assembly Antonio Villaraigosa and Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalaki respectively; 17% are undecided. Without Harris on the ballot, a plurality (45%) are undecided, while 21% support Porter, 9% Villaraigosa, and 5% Kounalakis.
https://emersoncollegepolling.com/febru ... -governor/

[Tero]

people discussing USA on https://boards.straightdope.com
USA the camel:

There’s this thing about final straws.
You don’t get to pick them.
You’ll certainly know it when it happens.
But the straw picks which back to break.

[Tero]

No leader has stepped up to challenge Trump. The demicrats in congress act pretty much like republicans in the Senate.

Democrats remain essentially leaderless, with prospective future presidential candidates largely sitting back and allowing others to be the first ones through the buzzsaw of Trump and his cheerleaders, none eager to be the face of a party just yet. They are disconnected from the Democratic National Committee, where the Obama-era rallying cry of “Yes We Can!” became the watered down facsimile slogan “Yes We Ken!” for Ken Martin, the largely unknown insider who emerged as the winner of the recent chair race that the party’s most prominent figures avoided.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/16/politics ... index.html

[Tero]

Well, this should fix it! A letter.
https://bsky.app/profile/esa88jarvi.bsk ... cpz4lbf22m

[Tero]

states should all send a couple of guys with pitch forks

Nearly 20 Democratic state attorneys general sued President Donald Trump, the Department of Treasury and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Feb. 8 for opening the department’s payment infrastructure to Musk’s DOGE personnel. They included a tech company CEO and a 25-year-old software engineer who worked for Musk.

The attorneys general said in a statement ahead of the hearing they were seeking a preliminary injunction Friday to continue a prohibition on access to the Treasury Department’s payment system. Vargas did not rule yet on that request.

Vargas was nominated by former President Joe Biden in March 2024 and confirmed by the Senate in September.

The DOGE personnel gained access to the systems less than two weeks into Trump’s second term, according to numerous reports and court records.

https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/02/15 ... t-systems/

[Tero]

Weekend update outlines scary Trump world. Start at 3-4 min. Bringing baby into Trump world.



Lorne has had the same job 50 years. Probably the only one in America
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorne_Michaels

[Tero]

Ireland to be punished by Trump next

Irish goods exports to US surge by 34%
Ireland's goods exports to the United States surged by 34% to €72.6bn (£60.4bn) in 2025 while its imports from the US fell slightly to €22.5bn (£18.7bn).

That meant Ireland had a goods-trade surplus with the US of just over €50bn (£41.6bn), according to the data from Ireland's Central Statistics Office (CSO).

These trade patterns have gained political significance since Donald Trump regained the US presidency.

He regards countries which have big trade surpluses as taking advantage of the US.

Irish pharmaceutical manufacturers
Trade policy in the EU is what is known as an "exclusive competence" meaning that only the EU can negotiate trade deals and impose tariffs, rather than individual states.

The major reason for Ireland's trade surplus with the US is the presence of pharmaceutical manufacturers who export most of their Irish output to the US.

The CSO said that in 2024 overall exports of medical and pharmaceutical products rose by 22.4bn or 29% to just under €100bn (£83.1bn).

These products accounted for 45% of all Irish goods exports.

One likely factor for the increase in exports in 2024 is that Eli Lily manufactures its weight loss drug, Zepbound, at a facility in County Cork.

US pharma companies are in Ireland partially because of the country's low corporation tax rate.

The researcher Brad Setser, who works for the US Council on Foreign Relations, has tracked the activities of the pharmaceutical companies.

In 2023, in evidence to the US Congress finance committee, he said: "There is no plausible explanation for the current scale of US imports of pharmaceuticals from Belgium, Ireland, Switzerland, and Singapore that isn't tied to tax avoidance."

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cre8expj2leo

[L'Emmerdeur]

Efficiently doing away with workplace safety publications. If they include a forbidden word, they're out!

'In botched DEI purge, OSHA trashes workplace safety guidelines'

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has ordered the digital and physical destruction of 18 publications on workplace safety practices, according to an internal February 7 email obtained by Popular Information. The email says the publications have been removed from the OSHA website and tells staff that any physical copies should be "disposed of or recycled."

The purge appears to be part of the Trump administration's effort to terminate any activities associated with "diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility," or DEIA. The email advises OSHA staff that "[i]f you have wallet cards that include language, or can be interpreted, on DEIA or gender ideology, please dispose of them as well."

Popular Information has obtained archived versions of most of the deleted publications. Almost all of them are not associated with DEIA topics but appear to have been targeted because they include a DEIA-related keyword used in a completely different context.

For example, one of the purged publications is "OSHA Best Practices for Protecting EMS Responders During Treatment and Transport of Victims of Hazardous Substance Releases." Popular Information was able to obtain an archived version of the publication through the Internet Archive. The 104-page document — a collaboration between dozens of government agencies and NGOs — was published in 2009 to detail the steps "employers need to take to protect their EMS responders from becoming additional victims while on the front line of medical response." DEIA issues are not discussed.

On page 94 of the publication, however, the words "diversity" and "diverse" are used in a context that has nothing to do with race or gender. The publication notes there is a "diversity of state-specific certification, training, and regulatory requirements" for "EMS agencies" and "diverse conditions under which EMS responders could work." Similarly, on page 96, the publication notes, "EMS responders are a diverse group" and "risks vary with their primary and secondary roles."

[JimC]

The degree of stupid demonstrated is extreme...

[Tero]

But the voters voted for this! No they did not. Not half of this. They voted for removing the illegals that were eating the cats and dogs.

RCP Average 1/24 - 2/13 — Right direction 39.8 Wrong track 52.8
Spread
-13.0

https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/ ... of-country

[Tero]

Who knew? All Prevagen users, the ones remembering it was election day, voted Trump

[L'Emmerdeur]

The degree of stupid demonstrated is extreme...

You can't be expected to understand the high-level thinking behind it. This is how to Make America Great Again in the most efficient manner. Ctrl-F search to reveal the forbidden word then delete the document. Hard to get more efficient than that.

[aufbahrung]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... pires.html

360 year old? - must be a Bible belt resident or vampire, or both...I'll have whatever their drinking anyway

[Tero]

some 20% of US debt owned by investors abroad
https://usafacts.org/articles/which-cou ... t-us-debt/